“What would you have brother?” said Dismas
to Barabbas, who had often scorned him so bitterly.
“Am I not a prisoner, too? Haven’t
you always preached that right lay with the stronger?
So then the Romans are right this time. Once
you betrayed me and forced me to join the plundering
Bedouins, most excellent Barabbas, and now it’s
my turn. I’ve betrayed you to the arm of
Rome. And we’ll probably be impaled!”
Then, as if that were a real delight, he brought his
hand down cheerfully on his companion’s shoulder
so that his chains rattled. “Yes, my dearest
brother, they will impale us!”
They were brought in gangs to Jerusalem, where they
lay in prison for many long months awaiting death.
On account of his self-surrender, Dismas had been
granted his wish for solitary confinement. He
desired, undisturbed, to take stock of his wasted
life. A never-ending line of dark, bloody figures
passed before him. But there was one patch of
light amid the gloom. It had happened many years
ago, but he had a very clear remembrance of that distant
hour. A young mother with her child rode on
an ass. The infant spread out his little arms
and looked at him. But never in his life had
human creature looked at him like that child had looked,
with such a glance of ardent love.
If only once again, before he died, he could but see
a beam of light like that.
CHAPTER XXII
When the people who had gathered round Jesus heard
that Saul, the terrible weaver, was scouring the desert
with a troop of police, they began to melt away.
They feared unpleasant consequences. They fully
recognised the right, but most of them were disinclined
to suffer persecution for that right. They must
return to their domestic duties, to their families,
industries, and commerce, and, so far as was possible,
live according to the Master’s teaching.
They left Him because it seemed to them that His
cause was falling. In the end there were just
a few faithful ones who stayed with Him, and even some
of them were in hopes that He would reveal the power
of the Messiah. But they all urged Him to repair
to some other neighbourhood. Jesus was not afraid
of having to render an account of Himself to His adversaries
in Jerusalem, but the time had not yet come, the work
was not yet finished. He knew that He could
never retrace His steps, for the more incontestable
His justification was, the more dangerous it would
seem to them. With His now dwindled troop of
followers He left the desert to revisit once again
His native Galilee.
But here His opponents were no better than before;
houses were closed as He approached, the people got
out of His way when He began to speak. Only Mary,
with all a mother’s simple faith, said; “Ah,
you have come at last, my son! Now stay, with
me!”
